BARREL 3A: Balloon Ephemeris and Magnetic Coordinates for Radiation Belt Studies

Over 50 stratospheric balloon flights collected 4-second ephemeris data during campaigns from 2013 to 2016. The dataset provides geographic and magnetic coordinates to study electron precipitation from Earth's radiation belts, coordinated with the Van Allen Probes mission. It was created by NASA as part of the Living with a Star program.

Use Cases

• Modeling magnetic field line mapping based on derived magnetic coordinates.
• Analyzing temporal patterns of electron precipitation using 4-second time-series data.
• Studying spatial scales of precipitation events using balloon array data from Antarctic and Arctic campaigns.
• Correlating balloon X-ray measurements with in-situ satellite particle data mentioned in the description.

Strengths

• Data collected from over 50 balloon flights across four campaigns (2013-2016).
• Coordinates are provided at a high 4-second temporal resolution.
• Data is coordinated with comprehensive space-based measurements from the Van Allen Probes.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data files are in specialized formats (BIN, PDF, TEXT, HTML) which may require specific tools to process.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Data returned from balloon payloads every 4 seconds, with geographic coordinates from onboard GPS and magnetic coordinates derived using the IRBEM library.

Time Range

Campaigns conducted in 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2016.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 12:26:24.175315; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Balloon launches from Halley Bay and SANAE IV base in Antarctica (2013-2014) and Esrange Space Center in Kiruna, Sweden (2015-2016).